Durban — An alleged serial rapist who cleaned the scene of his crimes as well as his victims with sanitiser after attacking them to make it hard for the police to investigate appeared in court recently for at least two of the rapes.
He also went to the extent of biting his fingertips to make finger-print identification difficult.
The 45-year-old man is also suspected of being a serial killer, although evidence has not yet been found to link him to any killings.
Last year, just over a month after a 40-year-old Queensburgh woman was raped, stabbed and killed in her home, the man believed to have murdered her allegedly went on to rape another woman in the same area.
Evidence Ntombifikile Seager was stabbed 12 times in the chest and had handcuffs around her ankles and items were stolen from her home.
On September 27, 2022, the same man allegedly broke into another woman’s home in Northdene where he subjected the victim to grievous bodily harm before raping her. He allegedly stole a number of items from his victim’s home including a spare set of car keys.
The following month a Malvern pensioner, 72-year-old Savithree Moodley, was found dead in her home with stab wounds on her chest.
The man who recently appeared in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court had been charged for these three cases. However, following his appearance the murder charges were provisionally withdrawn as the State continued with its investigation.
He has been positively linked to two rape cases that he will stand trial for in September.
Police battled to take his fingerprints upon arresting him.
While the accused has not been charged with the murder of domestic worker Busi Mlambo, a Rising Sun media report indicated that Mlambo was killed just weeks after Moodley.
According to the report, Malvern SAPS communications officer Sergeant Sthembile Kheswa said Mlambo had multiple stab wounds to her front upper body and a laptop was taken from the main bedroom of the home she was killed in.
At the time that Seager was killed, she had been living with her brother and some of his clothes were among the items that were taken.
His arrest came after Seager’s brother spotted the accused wearing some of these clothes in Malvern.
Following his arrest, when police took the man to his home in Shallcross, more items from Seager’s home were found.
He is believed to have moved from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal after allegedly raping and killing women there.
“He is from Mdansane and I heard he has cases there too. What more must be done for this person to be put in jail for a long time? The courts must protect innocent women from this monster. He needs to be jailed and charged for the murders and rape cases that he has committed – this is a serial killer and rapist,” said Seager’s relative who preferred not to be named for safety.
Just days before his arrest the man had allegedly entered the house of Dianna Govender in Escombe and stolen a laptop and charger, three cellphones, a smart watch, wireless headsets, R2 000 in cash as well as a pair of sneakers.
The items were valued at R30 000, and he is charged with housebreaking with intent to steal and theft.
He is also charged with possession of suspected stolen property on October 21 last year in Escombe.
This was where he was spotted by Seager’s brothers wearing the clothes missing from Seager’s house.
In his charge sheet it appears that his first-known brush with the law began in 2021 where he has a case of possession of suspected stolen property. The man was allegedly found with stolen property on November 28, 2021 in Northdene.
He was found with a steel knife, an orange torch, a pair of Nike Air Jordans, a black leather jacket, a pair of Levi jeans and a Barcelona Nike soccer jersey.
The accused abandoned his bail application on October 24 last year. He is to appear in the Pinetown Regional Court on September 5.
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